Pink Floyd may have once complained “Money, it’s a crime”, but that hasn’t stopped the British rock band from netting $400 million in a deal to sell their music catalogue to Sony.
The archive has become one of the most coveted in the world after earlier efforts to auction it broke down. A deal was finally agreed this week, the final chapter in a years-long disagreement over the band’s catalogue.
A 2022 attempt to sell the catalogue broke down amid personal disagreements between surviving members of the famously fractious group.
• Sony Music adds another brick in the wall with Pink Floyd deal
The auction attracted interest from music companies and investors, including Warner Music and BMG, the rival record labels, and Hipgnosis, the music rights group, but was said to have been derailed by a feud between Roger Waters, 81, the bass player, and David Gilmour, 78, the guitarist.
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The deal is understood to include Pink Floyd’s recorded music as well as the band name and the artists’ “likeness”, according to the Financial Times. It includes 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, which remained in the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than 900 weeks and is one of the best-selling albums of all time.
The value of music catalogues has risen sharply over the past decade thanks to the growth of paid streaming services and low interest rates.
Pink Floyd are one of the best-selling British bands whose most famous songs include Money and The Great Gig in the Sky. Their 1979 concept album The Wall sold more than 30 million copies and topped the US charts for 15 weeks. Their archive was one of the few large music catalogues still available to buy.
Sony previously agreed deals to buy the archives for Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. It has been one of the more acquisitive record labels in securing the rights to classic rock artists, whose music generates income via streaming platforms such as Spotify and can be sold for use in film and TV soundtracks and adverts.
Earlier this year the company bought a 50 per cent stake in Michael Jackson’s catalogue for at least $600 million.
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Sony is also reported to have acquired the back catalogue of Queen at a rumoured £1 billion, the largest deal of its kind. Apollo, the private equity group, invested $700 million to assist Sony with funding further music acquisitions in July.
It is not the only company spending significant sums of money on deals to acquire music catalogues. Hipgnosis Songs Fund spent more than $2 billion on song assets by Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. However, the business has struggled to recoup its investments and was acquired by the US group Blackstone this year.
